'Kung Fu Panda 2' Adds Yeoh, Van Damme and Garber Plus Gets New Release Date
Coming Memorial Day weekend 2011
Yesterday I referenced the casting of Gary Oldman as one of the voices in Dreamworks Animation's Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom, the sequel to the highly popular 2008 Kung Fu Panda which featured Jack Black as the voice of Po, a kung fu obsessed panda bear who finds himself along side his idols, the Furious Five — Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey — and battling evil to save his village. Today, Dreamworks has added additional names to the cast list, confirmed everyone from the original will be back and announced a new release date.
Along with Oldman, Michelle Yeoh, Jean Claude Van Damme and Victor Garber will join Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross and James Hong in the upcoming sequel to be directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson in her feature directorial debut.
Oldman voices the character of Lord Shen (a peacock), the film's formidable new villain while Yeoh brings to life the mystical character of The Soothsayer (a goat). Van Damme and Garber round out the cast as Master Croc and Master Thundering Rhino, respectively.
The storyline for the film hasn't been specifically detailed though what I have so far is an understanding Po is on the search for other pandas in the midst of his run-in with a group of bandits led by Lord Shen (Oldman) who posesses a mysterious weapon so powerful it threatens the very existence of kung fu. It is up to Po and the Furious Five to protect all that they know.
The film was previously set for a June 3, 2011 release but has now been moved to May 27 where it currently stands alone, one week after the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, one day later than the release of The Hangover 2 and one week before Fox's release of X-Men: First Class.
As far as animated films currently scheduled around that time, Fox will release Rio on April 8 and Disney/Pixar have Cars 2 on June 24.
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Great move by Dreamworks. Memorial Weekend was calling for a nem movie. One thing we have sure: Super 8 will not be on Memorial Weekend.
I wondered how long that second Memorial Day slot would sit open and it didn't last long. With The Hangover 2 opening on Thursday (I didn't know that until just now) there's little to no chance for it to have the photo finish against an animated power that the first one did in its opening weekend last year.
As a general rule, I watch anything with Michelle Yeoh, so I'm down with this news.
Van Damme with a job!